Semper Fast

by AboveTail

The son of a U.S. Marine combat instructor, Allen Martin had only been stationed in Japan for a few days before he was taken hostage by a villain. Rescued by All Might, Allen was inspired to follow the path of a hero. Armed with his combat training and quirk, he's determined to be the kind of hero who rescues others the way he was-in the blink of an eye. T-VL Rewritten up to Ch 8

21. Sports Festival Finale

Chapter 21: The Sports Festival Finale

Allen let out a soft grunt, moving as quickly as his fatigued body would allow. Since he had already been treated several times that day and wanted to remain conscious for the award ceremony, Recovery Girl had reluctantly accepted Allen's request to refrain from using her quirk to treat the deep gash on his leg beyond some bandaging and an anti-septic coagulant. He could walk if he absolutely needed to, but in the absence of the adrenaline that had powered him through the match, the pain coming from the wound made it difficult.

The reason for his haste was twofold: first and foremost, the intermission was almost over and he really wanted to get to the stands in time to see the final match. Additionally, he needed to get as far away from the infirmary as possible, since Recovery Girl had told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn't to leave his bed without her say so. Unwilling to do that, the moment she stepped out of the room, he grabbed a nearby pair of crutches and made his escape. After learning that Midoriya had gone through surgery and treatment for breaking all of his limbs and still left to go watch the finals, Allen would be damned if he missed the fight because of some mild frostbite and a freaking cut.

'Hmph,' Allen scoffed internally, 'as if I would go along with that and miss the show! Who the fuck does she think she's talking to here?' At that moment, he heard the unmistakable angry voice of Recovery Girl in his room about 50 meters behind him.

"Martin! Get back in here!"

'Fuck fuck fuck!'

Looking backwards for any sign of the irate caregiver and fueled by panic, Allen picked up the pace. In his rush to move away from the septuagenarian nurse, he lost his situational awareness and he plowed right into somebody as they turned a corner. The metal frames of the crutches clattered loudly as they hit the ground and Allen fell directly onto his injured side, sending a white-hot lance of pain surging through the limb.

"Ow, shit!" Allen swore, grabbing his leg with a pained expression as it sent fresh waves of agony surging through his nervous system. "Goddamn it!"

"Sorry about that." The person he had just collided with said, "Are you okay?"

"Just peachy." Allen grunted through clenched teeth grabbing the crutch nearest to him. Its pair was unfortunately just out of reach. "Fucking of course." He muttered, scooting on his butt over to the other crutch. "Just perfect…"

The man let out a small chuckle, "Here, let me help you." He grabbed the other crutch and brought it over to Allen before helping him to his feet.

"Thanks," Allen said, looking up at the helpful man for the first time. "I appreciate…it." His voice trailed off as he took in the sight of the tall, handsome dark-haired man in his late twenties or early thirties, who—minus the lack of glasses—looked almost exactly like Iida. His eyes widened as realization set in. "You must be Iida's brother…" Allen gaped at the pro, "Y-you're Ingenium!"

Iida Tensei nodded and smiled. "That's right, Tensei's the name. You a fan?" Tensei's smile slipped off his face momentarily as he gazed at Allen and narrowed his eyes in recognition. "And you must be Martin…uh…Allen, right? Tenya has complained about you a lot at home, and it seems I have you to thank for putting my little brother in a cast for the next week." Though the pro hero's tone was mild as he said this, the words themselves set off Allen's danger radar.

"He complains about me at home?" Allen asked before shaking his head, "Actually, never mind that, a week? I was told that his injuries weren't that serious!"

"You broke his knee with that stomp." Tensei said, still smiling humorlessly. "Luckily, the tendons seem to be mostly unharmed, but given the importance of his legs to his quirk, Recovery Girl doesn't want to rush treatment without running further tests over the next couple of days."

"Oh…." Allen trailed off, stammering, "I…um…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" He was able to apologize to Iida himself just fine, but he had no idea how to handle the older brother of the guy he had brutalized. He had no idea how close he came to permanently damaging Iida's prospects for a hero career with that move. He felt horrible about it all over again.

Allen's guilt must have been written all over his face because Tensei let out a good natured laugh and clapped a hand on Allen's shoulder, giving it a squeeze that was a just a little bit too firm and lingered just a little bit too long to be strictly friendly. "Hey, don't worry about it," he said, "I already talked with Tenya about it, and he explained the circumstances, so it's water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned." He leaned in, "Still, try not to do that again, or I might take it…personally, understand?"

Allen swallowed, remembering that Ingenium was a very popular pro that was regularly listed as one of the top ten heroes in Japan—he didn't think that the Turbo Hero would actually physically harm him in any way, but he could easily have Allen blacklisted from the industry with only a few phone calls. He nodded quickly, "Y-yep! Got it."

"Good." Tensei replied, seemingly satisfied. His posture and smile suddenly became much friendlier and easygoing, and Allen let out a nervous breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding in. "You have a lot of potential kid. I'd hate to see it squandered. Tenya's way better at this than I was at his age, so being able to beat him like that is a pretty big deal in my books."

Allen blinked. He wasn't expecting to hear anything like that. "Uh, thanks." He replied, "Iida's a tough guy—easily one of the best in the class—my quirk is just a really bad match up for him."

Tensei raised an eyebrow. "That so? I'm glad that you think so highly of him. Make sure you tell him that, though, from what I've heard he seems to think you have a pretty low opinion of him."

"What? That's not true at all," Allen said, confused. "Our personalities are super different, so it's true that we don't always get along…and to tell the truth, sometimes I annoy him just for kicks," he admitted, "but I know he's a good guy and I've always respected his abilities."

A buzzing sound came from Tensei's pocket. "Hang on a second," he said, digging out a phone and answering it, "duty calls. Tensei here, what's up?" He paused for a few seconds. "Hey, slow down, I'm having trouble understanding you…uh-huh…what!?" As he listened to the caller, the easygoing smile slipped off of Tensei's face and his gaze became clouded over with anger. "Got it. I'm heading your way right now." Tensei hung up the phone and let out a quiet curse, balling his hands up into tight fists.

"Is everything okay?" Allen asked, voice tinged with curiosity, "What's up?"

"Sorry." Tensei replied in a tight voice, "I can't talk about it right now, but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. Can you do me a favor and let Tenya know that I had to run? Something just came up that requires my immediate attention."

"Uh…yeah, sure." Allen nodded, "no problem."

"Thanks." Tensei replied before spinning on his heel and quickly made his way over to the stairway, "Nice to meet you Allen, maybe I'll be seeing you around."

'I wonder what that was all about?' Allen thought as he watched the Pro walk away with a visible sense of purpose in his stride. 'Whatever it is, he looked pissed.'

Allen shrugged and began his trek down the hallway once more after shooting a quick text to Iida about his brother. Allen was sure that it was none of his business—besides, he had other worries at the moment. He shifted the crutches under him and began his journey to his section of the stands once more.

(UA Sports Festival Stadium—Ring)

"You better use your fire side against me if you know what's good for you, Icy-Hot." Bakugo leveled an angry gaze Todoroki's way, staring unblinkingly into the other teen's mismatched eyes.

Todoroki raised an eyebrow at Bakugo's attempt at intimidating him. Though he normally would have found such a thing utterly laughable, Todoroki certainly didn't see any humor in the current situation. It was impossible to tell underneath the long sleeves of his tracksuit, but his entire body was an aching mess of ugly, tender bruises. His fights against Midoriya and Allen had been utter disasters as far as he was concerned. He could handle a great deal of punishment—he had been taking vicious hits from his father in training since he was five, after all—but he had been pounded into pulp throughout the day and he was feeling the effects.

On the other hand, Bakugo practically looked fresh as a daisy. Other than the big hit he took from Kirishima, the only damage he had suffered throughout the entire tournament was the blowback from his own quirk, and even that had been light enough that treatment from Recovery Girl had barely phased him.

'This doesn't look good for me.' Todoroki mused as he mentally ran through his prior observations of Bakugo's abilities and fighting style one final time, 'My mobility is severely impaired. I might be too beat up to win against him.' He shifted uncomfortably as he came to this realization. 'Still, I don't plan on losing here.' Only years of practice in keeping a stoic face at all times kept him from wincing as his aching ribs throbbed with pain at the slight movement.

Midnight's crop whistled through the air, "Begin!"

Wasting no time, Todoroki dug deep and let loose a massive blast of ice, covering the entire other side of the stage in a glacier, though it was barely half the size of the one he had used on Sero.

'I can't afford to gamble everything on finishing this in one shot. Based on what I've seen, Bakugo is powerful enough to get out of that.' Todoroki narrowed his eyes and leveled a wary gaze at the giant ice structure. As he waited and watched, he brushed a bit of frost off of his right sleeve. 'I have to be ready.'

For a moment, it seemed like the preemptive attack had done the trick, but that was proven incorrect by the faint sound of explosions gradually growing louder until the front of the ice formation was blasted outwards and Bakugo emerged from the steaming hole with a vicious look on his face.

"You'll have to do better than that, Icy-Hot!" Bakugo shouted, sprinting forward and boosting his speed with explosive force, flying towards Todoroki like a human bullet and traveling the length of the ring with alarming speed.

Mentally already on the defensive, Todoroki made a sweeping motion with his right hand, creating a semi-circular wall of ice.

'Okay,' Todoroki thought, immediately side stepping to his left with as much speed as he could muster, 'that should block his vision and forward momentum. Now he's got no choice but to go over the top or blast through it to keep from plowing face first into the wall.' He gathered his focus and prepared to use his quirk at a moment's notice. 'Either way, I'll be ready.'

~Boomboomboomboomboom~

A series of rapid-fire explosions sounded off and Todoroki reacted instantly, creating two lance-like ice formations. One was aimed skyward, the other at the center of the barrier; regardless of whether he chose to go over the wall or through it, both were positioned directly in Bakugo's expected flight path.

"DIE!" Todoroki's eyes widened as Bakugo's form emerged—not from the top or through the middle, but from the left side of the wall.

'He went around?' Todoroki realized in shock, 'How can he handle changes in direction that sudden? A normal person wouldn't even remain conscious from the g-forces, let alone pull that off and remain in control!'

As soon as his feet touched the ground, Bakugo used another explosion from his right palm to stop his directional momentum, then swung his left arm behind him while letting off a series of explosions with an outward facing palm, using them to add speed and add power to the spinning right backfist that he cracked Todoroki across the face with like a whip. The powerful blow staggered Todoroki and ripped open the stitches holding the cut above his eye together.

Reflexively, Todoroki slapped his hand to his brow to staunch the flow of blood by freezing it shut once more. 'Damn!' Todoroki thought, wiping away the bit of blood that managed to escape with his sleeve, 'I should have had Recovery Girl treat that after all, this is going to be a nuisance for the rest of the fight!'

Not letting up for an instant, Bakugo lunged forward, lashing out with a big explosive swing that Todoroki only barely managed to avoid by creating a floe of ice that slid him backwards out of range. 'That was different from the previous attack just now…he's off balance,' Todoroki observed, 'he's good with that kung-fu style Martin and Ojiro were talking about when he remembers to use it, but he's clearly not very experienced with it yet. He still hasn't internalized it.'

"You're predictable, you half-and-half bastard!" Bakugo jeered; sprinting forward and casually blowing away another wave of ice sent his way. "You won't be able to corral me like the idiot! Now, use your fire you fucker! I want to be the indisputable number one! There's no meaning in beating someone who doesn't do their best!" Todoroki did not use his fire, responding to Bakugo's demand instead by slapping his right hand on the ground and covering the entirety of the ring with several centimeters of ice in an instant.

Bakugo let out a scoff and leapt into the air, preventing his feet from becoming trapped in the ice. "Really?" he spat, "If you didn't catch me with this little trick during the race, what makes you think you could get me now?" Bakugo clenched his fist and intensified his glare. "You're underestimating me…and that really pisses me off!" With that, he launched himself towards Todoroki once more.

Reaching out towards the airborne Bakugo with his right hand, Todoroki tried to counter-attack with more ice, but Bakugo read the attack and used an explosion to dodge to his left, grabbing hold of Todoroki's arm and collar. Flipping over Todoroki in an impressive display of acrobatics, Bakugo initiated the beginning of a throw, however, as soon as he landed and tried to shift his weight, the lack of traction on the ice caused his feet to slip, making the two boys collapse into a pile with Todoroki on top.

"It's not that I'm underestimating you," Todoroki said, seizing the advantage by grabbing Bakugo by his left arm. Working quickly, Todoroki twisted the limb into an awkward position and froze it to the ground in a way that effectively worked as a shoulder lock.

"It's just that my shoes are designed to grip ice…and yours aren't." He pulled himself to his feet and stared down at Bakugo as he struggled to free his hand despite his lack of leverage, "Now, time to end this." He looked to Midnight. "Call it, he's not getting out of this."

"As if I'd let you win like this!" Bakugo snarled, violently twisting his body around until there was sickening pop, wrenching his shoulder out of its socket for a few precious centimeters of reach.

The crowd let out a collective gasp and Todoroki was so taken aback that he took a few steps back. With the extra reach, Bakugo was able to blast the ice encasing his arm, freeing it before quickly retreating away from his stunned opponent, making his way over to the wall of ice Todoroki had created earlier. Never taking his eyes off of Todoroki, Bakugo lifted his limp left arm and slammed his shoulder into the ice wall without hesitation, resetting it with another loud pop.

"That really sucked," Bakugo growled, glaring molten daggers at Todoroki as he rotated the self-injured limb, testing its range of motion. "You're gonna pay for making me do that, Icy-Hot."

(UA Sports Festival Stadium—Stands)

"Holy shit!" Allen shouted, "That was…that was just…" He didn't want to say it. He hated the idea of giving Bakugo any credit or respect in the slightest, but what he just saw his least favorite classmate do was straight up badass—stupid, but badass.

"Bakugo!" Kirishima had what looked like tears of joy in his eyes, "That was so freaking manly!"

"That was really gross." Asui said, making the rest of the girls watching nod in agreement.

"Why are there so many crazy people in this class?" Mineta asked, face pale. "There's Midoriya breaking his bones and having to get surgery, Allen going berserk on Iida, and now this? What's wrong with you people? This is a sports festival, not a fight to the death!"

Looking embarrassed at the mention of his reckless fighting style, Midoriya opened his mouth to defend himself, but a glance at his permanently warped hand caused him to close it without a word. Seeing his dilemma, Uraraka consoled Midoriya by patting him on the back.

"I have to agree with Mineta on this one," Jirou chimed in, looking a bit green herself, "his shoulder might never be the same again because of his little stunt. He should have just given up."

"Actually, I think it may have already been fucked." Allen replied, "He didn't even hesitate before slamming that shit back into place. He's definitely done this before."

Asui poked Allen in the side of the head without looking away from the match, "Language." She croaked.

Annoyed, Allen turned and stared Asui down for a few seconds. "Really?" He finally asked, "I didn't say anything the first couple of times, but is this gonna be a thing now? You never gave me shit about my language before." He swatted away her finger when she tried to poke him again. "Stop that, it's annoying."

"So is the constant and habitual profanity, ribbit." Asui held firm, "It's trashy, Ren-chan. I put up with it when we were just friends, but I don't want a boyfriend who talks like that all the time, why do you think Bakugo hasn't ever had a girlfriend despite his looks?"

"Because he's a perpetually angry, self-centered, rude, arrogant asshole?"

"That was a rhetorical question, Ren-chan."

"And I gave you a rhetorical answer."

Asui let out a long-suffering sigh and shook her head. "Just try and tone down the swearing, please. For me, ribbit."

"Stop having your lovey-dovey couple's fight and pipe down!" Mineta loudly complained, disgruntled by the affection evident between the two despite the argument. "Some of us are trying to watch the match!"

"I'll say the same to you." Jirou grumbled, "You're being way louder than they are."

"But—!" Mineta protested.

"Shut up!" Multiple nearby people shouted, silencing the diminutive teen.

Allen wrapped an arm around Asui's shoulders and grinned cheekily before winking at Mineta, making him seethe with jealousy. 'That's right you little shit, cry about it some more.'

Asui poked him again, but didn't remove his arm. She saw what he had done and wasn't amused. "Don't antagonize him like that, Ren-chan, it's really immature."

"But—" Allen began to defend himself.

"Character defects aside, Midoriya and I wouldn't have survived USJ without Mineta-chan's help. Be nice, ribbit."

"…Fine." Allen muttered. He shot a glare at Mineta, who was looking at Asui with something akin to stars in his eyes, "But I'm watching him."

(UA Sports Festival Stadium—Ring)

'This guy…' Todoroki stared incredulously at his opponent, shocked and impressed at Bakugo's ferocious tenacity, "he intentionally dislocated his shoulder to break free from the ice like a animal chewing off its own leg to get out of a trap.' Unbidden, the words of his classmates started flooding into Todoroki's head.

'Everyone—everyone here is giving it their all, trying to achieve their dreams, trying to make it to the top…and you, you say you're gonna win with half of your power? Give me a fucking break!'

'You had better not lose…If you lose to that jerk because you refused to use your whole power, I'll be taking my shattered pride out of your hide!'

'I want to be the indisputable number one! There's no meaning in beating someone who doesn't do their best!'

Out of the corner of his eye, Todoroki glanced briefly at the fiery form of Endeavor in the stands and shook his head. 'I can't let that bastard define who I am. I won't. Not anymore.' His decision made, he ignited his left side, melting the frost covering the other half of his body. "Sorry Bakugo." He apologized, "I've been rude, haven't I? You want everything I've got? You've got it."

Bakugo grinned and began to run towards Todoroki. "That's what I like to hear, half-and-half!"

Still inexperienced with using his left side in combat, the blast of fire that Todoroki fired at Bakugo to keep him at bay was hundreds of degrees hotter than he'd intended to make it. Todoroki paled—his father had admonished him for his dangerous lack of control over his fire but he didn't want to hear it—now he was worried that he might have badly burned Bakugo. He was relieved when the blond bomber successfully defended by blasting away the stream of flames with a medium-sized explosion.

Bakugo let out a curse—he'd used his left arm in that blast without thinking and the recoil on his injured shoulder was excruciating. While Bakugo cursing was nothing out of the ordinary, Todoroki noticed his pained expression and—after adjusting the temperature—pounced on the obvious weakness, firing blast after blast of fire and ice at the Explosion user's left side, trying to force him to use his left palm to dodge to the right.

Over the next couple of minutes, circumstances forced Bakugo to adapt his strategy, switching from an all-out assault to hit and run tactics. Making good use of the thick mist that had formed when the moisture condensed by Todoroki's ice came into contact with the superheated air from his flames, Bakugo darted in and out of sight, hiding behind the various ice structures that still remained, emerging only to blast the ground at an angle before retreating once more, simultaneously ridding the ground of its icy surface as well as pelting Todoroki with pulverized concrete shrapnel.

Todoroki was becoming increasingly agitated. Thanks to the use of his fire, the ice that he had frozen his head wound shut with had melted. Bleeding as freely as head wounds are known to do, the gash impaired his vision and sapped his strength. To make matters worse, it had only taken a few shots for the surly teen to realize Todoroki's hesitance and lack of confidence in using his left side. With this knowledge in his arsenal, Bakugo began powering through Todoroki's fire attacks to his left, relying on his body's natural heat resistance thanks to his quirk and attacking Todoroki's weaker side almost exclusively.

"I'm getting real tired of this." Todoroki grumbled, shooting off another wave of ice that Bakugo avoided with a one handed blast. He utterly exhausted and nearing his limit. In addition to his wounds from the previous matches, Todoroki was freely bleeding in several places where he had been hit by the concrete shrapnel. While none of the chunks of cement packed much of a punch on their own, they were taking their toll as he accumulated more and more damage. "I need to decide this quickly."

"Took the words right out of my mouth Icy-Hot!" Bakugo shouted, emerging from a shroud of mist and dust. "Now EAT THIS!" He skidded to a halt, winding up a big throw and hurling something about the size of an egg at Todoroki. Recognizing the tactic that had been used by Kirishima the moment that Todoroki saw the windup motion, he reflexively moved to dodge and shot off a blast of fire at his momentarily immobile opponent.

Though he had been wondering why Bakugo would bother throwing anything rather than simply blasting the ground at an angle like he had been doing for the last several minutes, it was the sight of Bakugo's triumphant grin that tipped Todoroki off that something was horribly wrong. Moving on instinct, Todoroki barely had enough time to call up a wall of ice before the object that Bakugo threw lit up in a massive explosion, blowing straight through the hastily erected ice barrier and sending Todoroki tumbling like a person thrown from a high-speed car. When the smoke cleared, he was lying face down on the ground, out of the bounds of the ring.

Concerned, Midnight ran over to the downed Todoroki and checked him. He was unconscious, but still breathing. She raised her hand and then pointed at Bakugo, who was breathing heavily. "Todoroki is out of bounds! Bakugo is the winner!"

(UA Sports Festival Stadium—Stands)

The crowd went absolutely nuts over this massive upset. Despite using all of his enormous power, the son of the number two Hero and the most talented member of their year had still lost to Bakugo. Unlike the crowd, everyone in Class 1-A was silent as the grave, completely shocked at what they had just seen. Everyone, that is, except Allen, who was on the verge of a temper tantrum at the result.

"Are you kidding me! What the fuck was that shit?" Allen shouted, red in the face as he warded off the poke from Asui at the profanity. "What just happened? How did he create an explosion that didn't come from his palm? I didn't know he could do that!" He turned to Midoriya, furiously writing in his notebook and muttering up a storm. "Did you know he could do that?" Midoriya didn't answer, oblivious to his friend's question as he continued to mutter under his breath and hastily write in the notebook. "Midoriya!"

Midoriya jumped. "Ah! Yeah! Sorry. No, I've never seen him do that before, but I think I know how he did it."

The class, which had been too shocked to respond to anything else, collectively turned to Midoriya when he said that, making him shrink in on himself a little bit under the weight of their collective attention. "Well?" Uraraka asked, leaning into Midoriya's personal space without regard for his sanity due to her curiosity and turning him bright red as a result. "How did he do it then?"

"W-w-well," Midoriya squeaked, pointedly looking away from her visible cleavage and hiding his face behind his notebook, "if I'm correct, he took a page out of Uraraka-san's book and used the mist and smoke from his explosions as cover to do that." He pointed at Bakugo's left shoulder, which was sporting a torn off sleeve. "After tearing off his sleeve, he grabbed one of the pieces of rubble from his explosions and wrapped the cloth around it. While he was avoiding Todoroki-kun's fire attacks, he held it in his injured left hand, collecting the sweat in the cloth like a primitive version of his costume's gauntlets."

"Oh I see!" Yaoyorozu chimed in—she had left Iida's side to watch the final match and had been similarly stunned by the outcome. "When he threw the rag soaked with his sweat and it was hit by the heat of Todoroki-san's flames..."

"Boom." Midoriya confirmed with a nod.

Kaminari shivered at the thought. "Man, that's freaking scary. If that sweat of his can be ignited by stuff other than him, then that means it would have worked on me too."

"Let's be honest," Jirou said, placing a hand on Kaminari's shoulder, "there's no way you would have beaten Bakugo even if he didn't have that trick."

Kaminari looked pained as the class laughed, "Why must you be the screen door in my submarine, Jirou? It's messed up."

"Alright, everybody!" Present Mic's boisterous voice boomed over the loudspeaker, "Wasn't that a jaw dropping conclusion to this year's sports festival? I personally can't wait to see what kind of heroes our talented kids turn out to be! Stay tuned, listeners! After a short commercial break, we'll be beginning the award ceremony, presented by a very special guest! All Might himself!"

"On that note," Aizawa cut in, "those of the final four not currently in the infirmary please make their way to the waiting room in the next five minutes. Some people have actual work to do and would like to get out of here some time today."

"You just can't help but be a buzz kill, can you Eraserhead?"

(Fifteen Minutes Later)

Allen couldn't help but scowl when he saw the self-satisfied smirk on Bakugo's face as he took his place at the top of the podium. 'Smug bastard,' he thought bitterly, 'You're just lucky that Todoroki had to go up against me and Midoriya before you.'

Allen glanced at Todoroki looking pensive as he stood on the second place part of the podium—like Allen, he was heavily bandaged up from his back-to-back brutal matches, and had waved off treatment from Recovery Girl in favor of being able to be present for the ceremony. Even if he knew about the outcome of the final outcome of festival at the time, Allen didn't think it would have affected how hard he fought for the win in his match with the ace of class 1-A, however, he couldn't help but wonder how much of Todoroki's loss to Bakugo was his fault.

"Young Allen!"

Allen glanced up at the grinning face of All Might. 'Oh...that's right, this is happening right now.' Shaking the cobwebs out of his head, Allen stood up a little straighter as the number one hero slipped a medal around his neck.

"Your tenacity and determination to win in spite of your clear exhaustion was a sight to behold, my boy." All Might praised before pulling Allen in for a hug and lowering his voice, "I am well aware of your work with Aizawa in overcoming your more…ahem...'mental' struggles, but know that if you need any more advice you can come to me or any of your other teachers for help. You are not alone in this my boy. We all have our demons."

Allen nodded, "I…thank you All Might." All Might merely nodded in acknowledgement and moved on to Tokoyami, then Todoroki, repeating the process of medal, praise, hug and advice for each of the contenders until he reached Bakugo.

"Young Bakugo," All Might began, "first of all, let me congratulate you on your magnificent victory! You have an excellent grasp on the fundamentals of your quirk and how to use it effectively in practically any situation." At the praise, Bakugo's shoulders drew back and his usual self-satisfied smirk morphed into a genuine, happy smile as he nodded and thanked All Might without a hint of conceit.

'Wow,' Allen realized, slightly unnerved at this radical transformation, 'I guess it's easy to forget cause of his shitty attitude, but in his own fucked up way, Bakugo looks up to All Might as much as anybody.'

"That being said," All Might continued, going in for the hug but pulling back when rebuffed by the prickly teenager, "You have a tendency to over-rely on brute force. I'd like to see you further develop the strategic side that you displayed in your match with Young Todoroki. I can tell you from experience that relying on the strength of your quirk rather than the strength of your mind can only take you so far."

Just like that, Bakugo's eyes hardened and the young man who was genuinely thrilled to be praised by his idol vanished. "Understood." He said, nodding briskly and internalizing the advice.

With that, the Sports Festival finally came to an end. Allen was so tired that the rest of the day passed in a blur. He laughed out loud at All Might's failure to read the mood with his call for a cheer of "Good work!" rather than "Plus Ultra!" that the crowd expected.

When she finally caught up to him, Recovery Girl gave Allen a sound reaming for running out on her before the start of the final match, not ceasing in her rant even as she treated his wounds. Feeling too tired to make the trip home and the subsequent walk from the station to his house, he called his parents and informed them that he would be staying over at Midoriya's place that night. On the train, he and Midoriya commiserated over their loss to Todoroki and discussed the events of the day. Midoriya's reaction at dinner when Allen casually mentioned that he was dating Asui was priceless.

"What?" Midoriya squeaked, choking on his bowl of Katsudon and spewing a mouthful of rice across the table.

"Izuku!" Inko gasped, clapping her red-faced son on the back, "Are you alright?"

Midoriya took a long drink of water. "I'm fine mom, don't worry about me!" He addressed Allen, "How did this happen? When? Where? Why?"

Nonplussed, Allen wiped a few rogue chunks of rice off of his face. "Dude," he complained, "I think you got some in my bowl…not cool." Despite saying this, Allen picked his chopsticks back up and took another bite of his meal. At Inko and Midoriya's incredulous stares over this action, Allen raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"D-didn't you just say—" Inko hesitantly began, but stopped when Allen waved her off.

"It's whatever," Allen reassured her, "a little spit is fine as long as he isn't sick or anything, I've never been super squeamish about that. Besides," he added, "no way in hell I'm letting your cooking go to waste." Allen leaned in conspiratorially, "Don't tell my mom I said this," he whispered, "but your cooking is waaaay better than hers, by like, a lot."

Inko blushed at the praise and began waving her hands in a manner eerily similar to her son. "Oh no," she deflected, "I'm sure you're just saying that to be polite."

"No," Allen replied, a little mournfully, "I'm really not. Midoriya knows." He kicked his friend under the table, "You've eaten my mom's cooking before, tell her."

"Umm." Midoriya said, feeling put on the spot and not wanting to talk down Allen's mother's food. "It's not that bad. It's certainly…uh, interesting."

"Dude, I'm fifteen and I'm a better cook than her." Allen rolled his eyes. "I love my mom, but she's totally taste-deaf."

"Wait," Midoriya said, "how did we get on this? You and Asui-san! When?"

Allen shrugged, "Right after your match with Todoroki. We had a moment in the med clinic after my match with Iida and after talking about it, decided to just go for it. I don't know why you're so surprised, did you not see me hugging her when we were sitting next to you in the stands?"

"I was focused on the match!" Midoriya defended himself.

"Well, good for you." Inko said with a smile. She rubbed her chin contemplatively, "That name sounds familiar…Izuku, haven't you mentioned this Asui girl before?"

"Yeah," Midoriya replied, "she's one of the two classmates I ended up working during the…uh…" He trailed off, not wanting to bring up the USJ and upset his mother all over again.

"Oh." Inko's face fell at the implicit reminder of the incident that almost killed her son. "Is she cute?" she asked, forcing a smile and trying to change the subject to something less uncomfortable.

Allen nodded and grinned. "She seems to have some confidence issues about it for some reason, but I definitely think so." He pulled out his phone and brought up the selfie that he had taken with her that afternoon. In it, Allen was wearing his medal with a tired grin on his face and had an arm around her shoulders. "This is her."

"Oh," Inko said, a little surprised, "she's a mutant type." Seeing Allen tense slightly, she quickly added, "But you're right, she certainly is cute! Congratulations!"

"Thanks." Allen said. A mischievous glint appeared in his eye. "Now Midoriya just needs to man up and ask out Uraraka and we can start going on double dates."

Just like that, both of the Midoriyas at the table began choking on their food for different reasons, letting out simultaneous cries of "Allen/Izuku!" while Allen cackled at his friend's expense.

'Maybe everything didn't go exactly as I would have liked,' Allen mused as he watched Inko grill her son over this mystery girl that he had neglected to mention, 'but all in all, today was a good day.'

AN: What's up everyone? It's been a while, and for that I apologize, but summer school is kind of a bitch. The Sports Festival arc has finally drawn to a close and we are about to begin one of my favorite parts of the story, The Internship arc! I've been looking forward to this for a long time, so I hope you guys are as psyched as I am. Fair warning, Allen's presence in the story have shifted things in significant ways, so things are going to be quite a bit different from canon from here on out.

Let me know in the reviews what you thought of the arc, and the final fight in particular. Who do you think should have won under those circumstances and why?